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Mystery surrounds death of prominent teen Black Lives Matter activist in the US

Oluwatoyin "Toyin" Salau was emerging as one of Tallahassee's most prominent young Black Lives Matter activists before she went missing a week ago.

Prominent Black Lives Matter activist Oluwatoyin "Toyin" Salau has been found dead.
Prominent Black Lives Matter activist Oluwatoyin "Toyin" Salau has been found dead. Source: USA TODAY

A teenage Black Lives Matter activist has been found dead more than a week after she was reported missing, with police now investigating her death as a homicide.

Police in Tallahassee, Florida, found the body of 19-year-old Oluwatoyin "Toyin" Salau on Saturday after she had written a series of tweets saying she had been sexually assaulted earlier this month.

They also found the body of 75-year-old Victoria Sims, whose death is also being investigated as a homicide. 

Police have since arrested a 49-year-old suspect, Aaron Glee, but it is not clear whether he is the same man Ms Salau accused of assaulting her. 

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On Twitter, Ms Salau wrote that a man in his mid 40s had assaulted her after offering to take her to collect her belongings from a local church, where she had been staying in the days before.

Before her death, Ms Salau had emerged as one of Tallahassee's more prominent voices in the Black Lives Matter protests organised following the death of George Floyd in police custody. 

"Right now, our lives matter, black lives matter," she said during a recent protest.

"We are doing this for our brothers and our sisters who got shot but we are doing this for every black person."

Friend and fellow activist Trish Brown remembered Ms Salau as an emerging leader in the community. 

"She was a strong, young black female leader to me, and a powerful speaker," Ms Brown told the New York Times.

"She humbled me. I’m going to try to live to do the good work that I have been continuing to do, but harder and harder."  


2 min read

Published

By Claudia Farhart



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